IP-based WANs are becoming an increasingly feasible mechanism for delivering media resources to users. Such media resources can include movies, music, and so forth. IP-based media delivery services can potentially offer functionality that is more flexible and interactive compared to traditional cable-based solutions. Further, IP-based media delivery services can potentially offer many more channels compared to traditional cable-based solutions.
However, IP-based media delivery services may also present new technical and business-related challenges. For instance, a service may wish to offer a large number of channels to entice users to subscribe to the service. The service may increase its channel offerings by proportionally increasing the number of resources dedicated to providing respective channels. Yet the cost of a service also proportionally increases with the addition of new server resources. It may therefore be an expensive proposition to provide a large number of channels.
For at least the above-identified reasons, there is a need for more satisfactory approaches to delivering media items to users.